Design: Examining the Unmentionables

Just about everything, according to a six-year, $100,000 study just
completed by Cornell University. And the worst offender of all is that
old unmentionable, the toilet. Not only has it not changed basically
since plumbing began to move indoors, but it remains "the most
ill-suited fixture ever designed." The most natural position,
Architecture Professor Alexander Kira and his four assistants
discovered after exhaustive research, is squatting. "We may think it
is outrageous to squat," says Kira, "but most of the world squats. It
is more natural and easier on the body."